The Breath of Life A Play

Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge." Gauguin's epigram serves as the motto for this moral tale of two women, both in their sixties, whose lives are interwoven in ways neither of them yet understands. Madeline Palmer is a retired curator, living alone on the Isle of Wight. One day Frances Beale comes to her door, a woman she has met only once, who is now enjoying sudden success, late in life, as a popular novelist. The result is a surprising and profound meditation on what can emerge when a man's wife and mistress finally confront each other. David Hareis one of Britain's most celebrated and internationally performed playwrights. He enjoyed a long association with Britain's National Theatre, which produced eleven of his plays between 1978 and 1997. Hare's other plays includeRacing Demon,Murmuring Judges,The Absence of War,The Secret Rapture,Amy's View, andVia Dolorosa. "Life being what it is, one dreams of revenge." Gauguin's epithet serves as the motto for this moral tale of two woman, both in their sixties, whose lives are interwoven in ways neither of them yet understands. Madeleine Palmer is a retired curator, living alone on the Isle of Wight. One day to her door comes Frances Beale, a woman she has met only once, who is now enjoying sudden success, late in life, as a popular novelist. As we come to find out that Madeleine Palmer is the ex-wife of the man who was Frances Beale's lover, the single night that comprises this fascinating play mirrors the hidden course of both their lives. David Hare has been described by the LondonTimesas "Britain's leading contemporary playwright" and by theNew York Postas "one of the few major playwrights in our language." The Breath of Lifepremiegrave;red at the Theatre Royal Haymarket, London, in October 2002. "One of Hare's finest . . . Bitingly funny and often deeply affecting."Charles Spencer,The Telegraph "One of the best new plays of the year . . . A deceptively simple but multi-layered portrait of two human beings with a painful shared past that they are trying to make sense of . . . Evenings at the theatre do not come much richer, wiser, or neater thanThe Breath of Life, David Hare's dense but compact new play . . . In its quietly illuminating way, [the play] paints a rich canvas about the lives of two 60-something women who have shared and lost the same man . . . Hare lays out a finely tuned portrait of these two women, confronting their loneliness, stubbornness, and mortality, as they seek to make sense of their lives."BBC London News "One of Hare's finest . . . Bitingly funny and often deeply affecting."Charles Spencer,The Telegraph "Smoothly written."Michael Billington,The Guardian

David Hare is the author of more than a dozen plays, including Via Dolorosa, The Judas Kiss, and Skylight.